Transexuals

[Jenny A]

It's not like sexual attraction. Sexual attraction is real, thinking you're a woman when you're not is not. It's an extreme delusion that you're something else than what you are and it shouldn't be encouraged. But I'm not saying that all people who go through such transformations do so because of such a delusion. It's perfectly okay to understand that you're a woman, for example, and yet wish to change your sex for whatever reason. Again, the point about my saying don't judge me if I'll think it weird, is you shouldn't judge anyone for that. It is weird for me as it is for a lot of other people. But that's not really the point. The real point is which of the people who seek to change their sex are mentally healthy and which are mentally ill. And that should be established by professionals, if any of them are indeed ill. I might very well be wrong, but I strongly doubt it. If I am wrong, all the better, the whole world can change their sex for all I care(well, not all, I hope, but you get what I mean) - as long as they're cognizant of what their sex is to begin with and so on.

Sorry, but transgender people are under no illusions about what their body or chromosomes' physical sex is. They simply feel their brain's sex doesn't match their body's sex. Male and female brains are different. So, as we most of us would choose mind over body when asked which is us, it makes sense to correct the body, not the mind.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Just wanted to leave this out here.

http://waltheyer.typepad.com/blog/2013/1...traum.html

I recommend giving this a read to widen your perspective, just in case.

[I_am_not_mafia]

I'm no expert and I could be wrong, but from a common sense type perspective, thinking/feeling like you're something that you physically/biologically are not, does sound like some sort of disorder.

Brain scans show that transgendered people have the same type of brains as the gender that they identity with.

Why should the body take precedence over the brain? Who are you? What is more important to who you are as a person? Your brain or your body?

[Jenny A]

I'm no expert and I could be wrong, but from a common sense type perspective, thinking/feeling like you're something that you physically/biologically are not, does sound like some sort of disorder.

Brain scans show that transgendered people have the same type of brains as the gender that they identity with.

Why should the body take precedence over the brain? Who are you? What is more important to who you are as a person? Your brain or your body?

Perfect. Indeed, especially when the brain differences are physically demonstrable which, in this case they are.

[I_am_not_mafia]

I'd feel sorry for him if he wasn't so oblivious to his own failings. As it is, it's like feeling sorry for someone in a vegetative state. They're just not aware.

I must admit I have not read very many posts on thread that are not directed at me. What exactly did he say that is sooo horrendous? Is it simply saying that he believes transgenderism is a psychological disorder?

No. He cherry picks a few articles here and there, uses words and terms completely wrongly without in anyway understanding what they mean. He uses them to propose that people with a certain medical condition should have no say about harmful conversion 'therapies' and discriminatory practises being used against them, all the while dehumanising them at the same time. Even revelling in the idea of transgendered people being raped in order to educate them, which is more likely to happen because of this law that he is condoning.

He has no empathy and no wish to empathise, just dismissing any concern related to the suffering of other humans.

Drich has gone way beyond his usual standard of odiousness this time. You're just ignorant on the matter and don't wish to educate yourself. Drich is malicious.

[robvalue]

@All:

I still have no idea how people think this could possibly work.

They seem to be expecting trans people to volunteer themselves as such, and then submit to some kind of judgement about where they should go. Insisting they use a third area is even more absurd, as they are then identifying themselves for all to see. You think they want to do that? With all the ignorance and bigotry around, they may as well paint a bullseye on themselves.

Stop and think for a minute, please. Imagine someone pulls you aside and says, "Game's up. We know you're not really a man/woman. You look suspicious." Yes, you. Anyone. It's purely a matter of opinion who does and doesn't look "enough" like a certain sex. If you think you could pick trans people out of a lineup, in general, you're ignorant.

What would be far better, in my opinion, is just urinals in one room and then a series of unisex cubicles.

[Vincent]

Just wanted to leave this out here.

http://waltheyer.typepad.com/blog/2013/1...traum.html

I recommend giving this a read to widen your perspective, just in case.

Read it. Similarly, to broaden YOUR perspective, I'd like you to do a little more research from actual scholarly sources, rather than online blogs and news papers like the Guardian. Especially considering that some of his sources are from the 70s. And ESPECIALLY when they drag in John Hopkins' name. 

For example, this study on male-to-female transsexuals found that only 8% regret/have feelings of doubt about their transition. 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19997841

And this Sweedish study found that 95% of individuals report positive results, and 90% were either stable or improved the quality of their life. 
https://www.skane.se/Upload/Webbplatser/...Annika.pdf

I'd also like to address some misleading claim your author made:

Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey says a staggering 41% of transgenders surveyed report they have attempted suicide and that those who have medically transitioned and surgically transitioned have higher rates of attempted suicide than the general population.

First, 41% is a percentage applied to all transgender people, not only ones who have had medical operations. 

While there may be a higher level of suicides among those who are or have medically transitioned, the source the author is pulling from directly states that the causes of suicide attempts by both transgenders and transsexuals are generally traumatic life events such as job loss, family problems, and housing loss. All of which are a result not of the medical procedures, but of living in a society of transphobia and discrimination. And when someone medically transitions, that is when they are at an even greater risk of bullying and harassment, especially being thrown out of their house, rejected by their families, and fired from their jobs. 

"Ttransgenders have higher rate of HIV infections. They are more prone to heavy drinking and the use of drugs. They have high rates of homelessness, unemployment and extreme poverty, even more so in the more difficult economic times of the last 5 years."

Again, all of this is applied to the entire transgender community, not just transsexuals. 

The article the author is citing clearly establishes (if he had taken the time to read it) that these things are not correlated with the individual being transgender or wanting surgery, but more so with discrimination, unsupportive families, families kicking them out of the house for being transgender, not being able to get a job for being transgender, being kicked out of their OWN houses for being transgender, and thus being homeless, impoverished, and facing economic troubles. There was no causation established between any of those things and the fact that the person is seeking to medically transition or has medically transitioned. That is not the problem here. The problem is transphobia. 


And perhaps you should tell the author of that article that the article he cited is actually ADVOCATING for easier access of transgender people to hormone/medical treatment. It pays to read your sources.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Fair enough. How about people who identify as a different species or as a different race than what they physically/biologically are? If those are indeed psychological disorders, in what ways would you say they are different from identifying as a different sex?

People who identify with a different species (if there are any, I doubt there are) do not have matching brain scans.

There is also no discernible difference in brain scans between different races, such as there is between male and female.

Transsexuals have the same type of brains as the gender that they identify with.

[SteelCurtain]

I'm no expert and I could be wrong, but from a common sense type perspective, thinking/feeling like you're something that you physically/biologically are not, does sound like some sort of disorder.

Brain scans show that transgendered people have the same type of brains as the gender that they identity with.

Why should the body take precedence over the brain? Who are you? What is more important to who you are as a person? Your brain or your body?

Check out this post that shows some pretty concrete evidence of the brain differences in male/female brains alongside trans brains. It shows the non-binary spectrum very well.

[I_am_not_mafia]

I don't know much about the issue, but I'll further clarify my thoughts. I think feeling like you are a different gender when you clearly aren't to begin with is definitely a mental disorder. Knowing that you are one gender, and wishing you would have been or wanting to become another one, however, isn't necessarily so. Which of these two categories fit most people who identify as transgender I don't know, but it makes no matter, for even those that fall in the former category only concern me so far as their own well-being(as do the latter, of course).

The problem comes with your definition of gender.

You are basing it on what you see. The body. There is a difference between your physical sex, as in the body and chromosomes, and gender which depends upon how your brain is wired up. You can't see what goes on inside someone's head. In fact you can't even see someone's chromosomes and you'd be surprised at how much variation there is here in people who you personally would see as a man or a woman. And even then, the extra chromosome that is different between male and female, most of it is not even related to gender either.

Your identity and thoughts come from your brain, not your body your genitalia, or your chromosomes.